Gender Income Gap
“Sit Up Straight.” “That’s not lady-like.” “Girls don’t look cute cursing.””Be home by this hour.” “You can’t have a boyfriend till you’re 30.” “Boys are stronger than girls.” In a bad mood? Must be that time of the month. When having a bad day, people assume it’s due to menstruation that’s causing your moodiness. These concepts is what I heard most of my life growing up as a girl.
“You can’t wear that, it’s too slutty” “Where’s the rest of your shorts” “You’re wearing too much make-up” “Not wearing enough make-up.” No matter what we do, we get criticized for the stuff we do or don’t do. Having that said, women are forced to not show a lot of skin because the clothes they’re are wearing might send the wrong signal sexualizing girls instead of teaching classmates that the female body is not for male utilization. Although feminists have been fighting for gender equality for centuries, some things just don’t seem to change. These are just a few examples of what women face on a daily basis (not saying that men don’t face discrimination either). Now, according to a new study, Women seem to be getting paid less than men in every level in all industries. No matter if men are married or single, they seem to be getting paid a lot more than women do. Statistics show that the average fathers earned in the overall median was $ 67,000 compared to $46,800 to married women with children.
If men and women have the same educational opportunities,, then why are men making more income than women? Is gender discrimination very much alive? Are women still considered the submissive gender? Why is gender always taken into consideration in the first place? As a woman, am I looked down upon rather than seen as an equal human being?
Fox Business claims that gender gap is just a myth but statistics seems to oppose that argument, and this subject is a subject of continued debate. Some agree with it, others oppose it. Recently President Barack Obama and Patricia Arquette, Oscar winning actress, spoke about the 20% pay gap. Women seem to make 79 cents for every dollar men make. Can I get a “THAT AIN’T RIGHT?!” Experts say it can take up to 43 years for the wage gap to completely disappear. 43 YEARS?!
Ronda Rousey, one of the most dominant female UFC fighters says that why is it that in every sport, they have to add the “W” in front which stands for women? For example there’s WNBA, Women’s Tennis, etc but in UFC there’s no “W.” But in a regular sport such as the NFL, or NBA, there’s no “M” in the front describing that it is a Men’s sport. People just assume it’s based off of men playing sports. Rousey claims that she needs to put it more time in the ring to make as much money as Floyd Mayweather does. After one fight in the ring, Mayweather makes hundreds of millions of dollars while Rousey, who is one dominant female fighter and a UFC champion, only makes 11 million.
Angela Davis, author of Women, Race and Class, describes about how women have been discriminated for centuries. She describes the complex history of black and women’s suffrage in the U.S. Hardworking black women who did factory work and were domestics were denied access to education. She also mentions and describes Frederick Douglass and his role in the movement for women’s emancipation and William Lloyd Garrison in the Abolitionist movement which showed that men can support women’s rights and blacks have the support of white people.
But it all narrows down to women always being the targets, looked down upon, and considered being the “weaker” gender. If woman can carry a baby for nine months in the womb, bleed for seven days, cry all night and wake up the next day like if nothing was wrong, why are we considered submissive rather than being human just like men?
